by Jay Solomon
Hello, and welcome to another iteration of Why Don’t I Play This Piece?. Today I’ll be taking a look at an X-Men character, who doesn’t see as much play as she should, Dust!
Dust has Improved Movement: Ignores Elevated and Hindering terrain. She also has the X-Men team ability, two traits, and a special defense power:
X-Men – POWER: Choose an adjacent friendly character that can use this team ability and heal that character 1 click and roll a d6. [1-4]: This character is dealt 1 unavoidable damage.
This is a common team ability these days, with all the X-Men teams. On a well-constructed X-Men swarm, it can make it difficult to kill some of the more important members of the team, such as Wolverine, or Shifting Focus Deadpool.
(Trait) X-STUDENT: When this character’s or an adjacent friendly character’s attack roll includes exactly one 5, modify one target’s defense -1.
While this trait doesn’t appear to be that important, it can really help swing the attack roll math in your favor. Each D6 in an attack roll has a one in six chance of being a five, of course, so the odds of the trait coming into play aren’t irrelevant.
(Trait) SCOURING SANDS: Smoke Cloud as FREE, but only to place 4 markers. At the end of each opponent’s turn, deal 1 damage to each opposing character occupying or adjacent to a Smoke Cloud marker placed by Dust.
Having access to free Smoke Cloud can do a lot, including giving opposing characters the -1 to Attack and making hindering terrain on maps that are otherwise lacking it. Also, the free damage for Dust’s Smoke Cloud variant is especially useful these days, with reducers being less common. Also, the Smoke Cloud markers can have some element of map control, on certain maps with narrower paths, such as the Star Trek Underground Caverns map.
(Special Defense Power) SWIRLING SANDS: Super Senses. Dust modifies defense +1 for each adjacent Smoke Cloud marker placed by her.
With this special power, in addition to the Super Senses, with proper Smoke Cloud placement, Dust could have a 19 or 20 Defense, which isn’t easy to hit outside of dedicating an Outwit to the power, which is still fine, considering that Dust is only a 5 point investment, and will certainly not be the primary threat.
Overall, Dust has a lot of utility, and can force your opponent to have to deal with her in certain matchups, such as teams that are lacking reducers. If your opponent does find that they need to take out Dust, they’ll need to dedicate at least one Outwit, and one or two big hits to knock her out. Drawing attention and your opponent’s resources (Outwit) to deal with Dust can help your team in the long run. Alternatively, if they don’t deal with Dust, the free damage can be very important in some match-ups, such as to KO a chase Starfox on his STOP click, taking Life tokens off of Mud Men, or damaging an entire team of X-Men. Her Smoke can force non-flying characters without reducers to either have to deal with the -1 to Attack, or move out of it with the halved speed. Taking into account the X-Student trait, Dust can have an overall noticeable impact on opposing stats. While her stats, besides Defense, aren’t above average, that’s not what she’s there for.
This team is one that my local friend Emily has been using for a while now, going so far as to win a WKO in Toronto:
70 ADW069 Captain America
75 TMNT3 023 Shredder Clone
-10 Ocean Resurrection optional trait
15 HQ044 Kite Man
25 ADW071 Iron Heart
50 XXS056 Dust
20 AIG025 Groot
8 WKMP17-007 Pym Pocket Tank
5 WKDP17-008 Boxing Ring
5 XXS XID-025 Wolverine ID card
5 DOFP-001 Wolverine Wanted Poster
5 MVID-012 Professor X ID card
3 MVID-018 Cyclops Student ID card
3 XXS XID-010 Chamber ID card
299
Sideline: XXS053 Wolverine, XXS053 Wolverine, XXS 037b Professor X, XXS019 Cyclops, XXS052 Cyclops, XXS063 Cyclops, XXS041 Chamber, TMNT3 035 Shark Shredder, WKMP17-006a Pym Particle Tank
Maps: XXS Genosha, XXS Muir Island, WK Sporting Arena
Dust plays a number of key rolls on this team. First, since the team is not likely to win map roll, having access to Smoke Cloud for Shredder Clone is important, in case the opponent chooses a map with little to no hindering terrain. The overall theme of the team is taking actions after being carried, along with free/passive damage, which Dust can help with. Dust can also call in the ID cards when Captain America has to clear, allowing Shredder Clone to be able to concentrate on dealing Shredder Elite damage, or attacking himself, with his 12-Attack. Also, despite not being an X-Men theme team, Dust’s being on the team can trigger the FREE trait attacks from the Headmaster Wolverine and Cyclops if she is attacked, so she is useful even if she is KO’d. Also, assuming that another character calls one of those two Headmaster characters, they can Perplex Dust’s offenses. This allows the team to take full advantage of everything that those ID cards do, unlike other competitive teams that are not X-Men theme.
That’s all I have for this week. Thanks for reading, and remember that whether playing the established competitive characters, or a Fringe Figure, practice will make your team better.
